Biodiversity Consultation Results

Creating Biodiversity Grasslands and Naturalised Grasslands in Dundee’s parks and open spaces

Background

During the first lockdown in spring 2020 Dundee City Council received feedback from local people who told us how they were enjoying the longer grass in our parks and open spaces, and the wildlife they were seeing as a result. An action in our Biodiversity plan also committed us to reviewing our grassland management. On the back of this, the Council identified 27 potential sites (view the maps here) to become biodiversity grasslands or naturalised grasslands in our parks and open spaces. Signs were erected at all locations explaining the intention to create longer grass that would be of benefit to biodiversity.

Following feedback, discussions with local people and the interest generated from these signs it was decided to launch a city-wide consultation to gauge the opinions of local communities across Dundee. The consultation was live from October 2020 until mid-January this year. It was mainly an online survey which was backed up by maps of the locations and further information to answer any potential questions. The survey was also available in a paper format to include those without the capability of accessing the internet.

The consultation was promoted through the press and online across the Council’s website and social media. Posters were displayed in park noticeboards and they were also shared amongst local people through existing networks.

At the time of the consultation the Council made a commitment to publicly share the results of the survey.

Consultation Results

Dundee City Council received 550 responses to the survey which consisted of 9 questions with 5 general questions and 4 detailed questions focussed on the 27 potential locations. As all of the questions were not mandatory, not everyone answered every one. This will have been due to a number of factors including respondents only answering questions about their local or favourite parks and greenspaces.

Question 1

Overall there was overwhelming support for the creation of biodiversity grasslands and naturalised grasslands in our parks and greenspaces with 4 out of 5 respondents supporting the idea.

Question 2

The responses to question 2 showed that there was a high level of awareness of the plans for biodiversity grasslands and naturalised grasslands at the 27 sites. This may indicate that respondents were well aware of the survey’s existence before they completed it.

Questions 3 to 6

Questions 3 to 6 relate to each of the individual 27 locations. Results for each location can be found by clicking the links on the list below. In summary:

Question 3.
Should there be biodiversity grassland / naturalised grassland at this location?
The results for this question were broadly similar across all 27 sites with the majority of respondents in favour of biodiversity grassland / naturalised grasslands at each site. On average 403 people answered this question for each site (between 461@ Camperdown, and 176@ Fintry and Myrekirk,) with 51% to 70% positive responses and with 13% to 24% negative responses.

Question 4.
Is the location of the proposed biodiversity grassland / naturalised grassland in the right place?
Again, the responses to this question were broadly similar across all 27 sites with the majority of respondents agreeing that the proposed locations were in the right place. On average 299 people answered this question for each site (between 349@ Magdalen Green and 271@ St Saviour’s former school site) with 36% to 47% positive responses and with 12% to 20% negative responses.

Question 5.
If it is not in the right place, please let us know where would be more appropriate?
The majority of respondents chose not to answer this question, but those that did left written comments. A summary of comments can be seen by clicking the links to the individual park profiles below. The number of comments left ranged between 1 and 10 for each of the 27 sites, meaning that least one comment was made on each of the 27 sites.

Question 6.
What do you think about the size of the proposed biodiversity grassland / naturalised grassland area for this greenspace?
From the responses given to this question there was a relatively equal split between ‘just right’ and ‘too small’ meaning that either respondents were happy with the proposed size of the areas or would be happy to see them increased. A minority of respondents thought that the proposed areas were too big. The ranges were ‘just right’ 35% - 48%, ‘too small’ 38% - 52%, ‘too big’ 12% - 20%.

The park profiles which give a breakdown to the responses for all parks and open spaces can be accessed by clicking the links:

Question 7

The responses to this question were written comments and it is not possible to replicate them all here. However, during the analysis of responses comments were grouped under themes and a word cloud created. The number of times the theme was mentioned is indicated by the size of the word in the diagram below. 62% of respondents did not leave any comments.

Questions 8 and 9

As the responses to both questions were broadly similar they have been grouped together using the word cloud technique that was used in the previous question:

Question 8:
Would you like to see any more areas designated as biodiversity grassland / naturalised grassland areas? Parks, Schools, Roadside Verges, Housing Areas and Other given as choices

Question 9:
Other than the areas proposed in this survey are there any other locations where you would like to see biodiversity grassland or naturalised grasslands?

From the results of the word cloud analysis roadside verges were mentioned the most as spaces to create additional biodiversity grasslands / naturalised grasslands.

Conclusions

Throughout the consultation process Dundee City Council has continued and will continue to engage with local people about the proposed biodiversity grasslands / naturalised grasslands in their local greenspaces. The areas have been refined through this dialogue, but the consultation has conclusively shown that there is a public appetite for biodiversity grasslands / naturalised grasslands at each of the 27 sites proposed.

Biodiversity Consultation Results

Related Links

Dundee City Council